Biography
John Balistreri is currently a professor of art and the head of the ceramic program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He has been in numerous solo and group exhibits throughout the United States. Balistreri’s work is typically large-scale sculpture that is built using a verity of techniques, then wood or salt fired. Balistreri has had his work published in a number of publications including: “Ceramic: Art and Perception,” “Ceramics Monthly,” and “American Craft”. He was selected as an “Emerging Talent” at the 1995 NCECA convention. He has also conducted many workshops through out the U.S. and his work is in numerous museums and public and private collections. He has recently become involved with printing ceramic objects using the 3d rapid prototype process.
Balistreri was born in 1962 and raised in Denver Colorado. In 1982 he received an Associate degree in business from Colorado Mountain College. He also built his ceramic studio near Denver that same year. In 1983 Balistreri attended Alfred University. Balistreri received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1986 and his MFA from Kent State University in 1988.
During the summer of 1987 he returned to his studio in Denver and built a large Anagama wood burning kiln. After graduate school, Balistreri returned to the Denver studio and began to make large scale work that was wood fired. During the period between 1988 and 1996 he worked as a studio artist and occasionally taught ceramics at the University of Denver and Front Range Community College. He also worked as a technician at the Robinson Brick Company.
In 1996 Balistreri began his tenure at BGSU. From 1998 to 2002, Balisteri worked with Peter Voulkos, assisting in creating and firing his final sculptures. Later, Balistreri toured and studied ceramics in China, Japan and Korea.
In 2001 Balistreri began a body of work titled Problems in Sailing which includes airplane and boat forms. This body of work continued through his sabbatical in 2005, where he built large scale airplane forms at the Kaneko experimental workspace in Omaha Nebraska. His “Problems in Sailing” series continues today.
In 2006-07, Balistreri and others at Bowling Green State University began research into 3D Rapid Prototyping machines, creating printed ceramic art objects. This research has led to the invention of ceramic powders and binder systems (patent pending) that enable clay to be printed from a computer model for the first time.